bring it

(written August 27, 2007)

"Becoming a child again is what is impossible. That's what you have legitimate reason to be upset over. Childhood is the most valuable thing that's taken away from you in life, if you think about it."
- character "Baby" in Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill

So, it started. I have finished my first day of third year medicine…well not really, I finished the first 12 hours of orientation week. The day consisted of about ten different people telling us how, “we have reached an exciting stage of our medical training as we transition from classroom to clinical learning,” and “to be humble and hard-working” and “ to make sure we take care of ourselves, and sleep and talk to our loved ones etc.” I found myself being quite cynical about the whole thing, which in turn made me frustrated with myself for failing to be more easy-going. And then I started thinking about whether or not being “easy-going” was actually a good thing, or whether it was naïve or unrealistic or something less mature than cynical. Hmmmmm. In the end I vowed not to let myself enjoy cynicism too much more than whimsicality, but to enjoy both in moderation. Eventually I resigned myself to trying to pay more attention to lecture. I think I am just grumpy that my sweet, sweet vacation is over.

On my bus ride home I resolved to make a conscious plan about how I am going to approach this, “exciting, but harrowing year.” I toyed with making this the last post in which I whine – but I just don’t think that I am ready to make that kind of commitment before I have had a couple of call shifts. I am still working on my year-plan, but in the meantime, I will be more laid back about orientation week – I think I will have enough to think about in the coming months, I don’t need to worry my little head about hanging out in lecture one last time. Bring it on orientators.

the year that shall not be named

Since the last time I posted, I have returned home from a trip, puttered around between Burnaby and Vancouver for a few days, and am now getting ready to pack up and leave town for about a week (again). This is the sixth time that this pattern has repeated itself for me this summer, and, whether it is good or bad, it will be the last, as this time I will be back with just enough days to get ready for school starting on August 27th.

The end of my New York/Boston trip was great. The Friday in Boston, we toured in the scorching heat (our respective tour guides/friends might have/probably hated us for that, but were gracious enough not to tell us so). And, the next day, Leisha and Mike took us to the beach - it was fantastic. The night we returned to New York, my mom made me an early birthday dinner! The last few days and nights were filled with more touristing (Empire State Building, Guggenheim, Grennich Village etc.). I arrived back in Vancouver on time, with all the luggage. Whew. It really was a wonderful trip, but I have to say, I was happy to return to Vancouver's fresh air, cool breeze and space.

This afternoon, friends from school are getting married - yes both of them are in our class, but they have been together for much longer than they have been medical students. I am crossing my fingers for a lengthy sunny break in these suspiciously autumn-like cloudy periods we have been having.

Tomorrow Kyle and I will be heading eastward to the Kootneys again, for some last rest and relaxation before you-know-what.

more new york

Monday:

• stroll in Central Park – our tour guide on Tuesday told us that there is 529 billion dollars of real estate potential in this land
• American Museum of Natural History – really cool dinosaurs. We were kind of rushed and I ended up missing the Squid and the Whale diorama that was one of my only NY sightseeing goals. Oh geez.
• pizza on the rooftop of Mom and Alex’s Chelsea apartment
• Transformers movie in HUGE Time Square Cinema

Tuesday

• Metropolitan Museum of Art – we liked the Arms and Armor exhibit
• 2 hour Circle Line sightseeing cruise of East River/Statue of Liberty
• RENT! on Broadway – so fun.

Wednesday

• shopping – I really don’t like it…neither does Kyle, so why exactly we decided to go without Alex (fashion consultant and lover of shopping) we are still trying to figure out. We ended up riding the escalators up to the top of the block long, nine storey Macy’s store and then back down for sightseeing purposes. I eventually bought some pajamas so that we felt that we were accomplishing something. Finally, Mom and Alex came to our rescue and I ended up with some new, very needed professional pants, and Kyle got some equally needed shoes.
• Rockerfeller Centre: celebrity sighting – Michael Buble
• Radio City Music Hall (the outside)
• famous Brooklyn pizza joint for dinner, and a walk back home across the Brooklyn Bridge – both were very cool.

Thursday

• took the train to Boston to visit Leisha!
• Leisha made dinner for her boyfriend and us, which we enjoyed in his air-conditioned apartment
  

sister city

I really have to start posting more frequently.

I got back from camp last Friday. It was awesome and crazy, and exhausting, and exhilarating and emotional. Trying to articulate everything that the week was and meant is going to take more reflection than my current pace of life here in New York will allow. I hope to have the time and the brainpower to revisit my experience when I am back in Vancouver next week. This much I do know: it was good for my soul, and once more, Camp Winfield provided more for me than I could ever return.

Kyle arrived back in Vancouver about 7 hours after I did on Friday night, and proceeded to experience the effects of a certain gastrointestinal virus in full force throughout the night. This resulted in a very tired, and fairly dysfunctional day for both of us on Saturday, but we did manage to get ourselves ready for the big apple for which we were to depart the next morning.

We were both flying on points, and Kyle was added onto the trip later, so we were flying separately. I was to arrive at JFK a couple hours before him, so we planned that I would take all of our luggage in an effort to expedite our airport exit. I ended up arriving at JFK after Kyle with none of our luggage. The only thing that made me feel a little better about the situation was that in fact no one on my entire flight had their luggage. Due in small part to weather and in large part to a miscommunication between pilots and fuel guys that resulted in 1200kg of extra fuel being loaded onto the plane, and all the luggage was left in Calgary. Another example of why travel plans should really be considered travel notions.

It was great to see Mom and Alex again, and to see their Manhattan pad. We have had a great time so far visiting this busy and interesting city. Will post the sights we have seen tomorrow.